Story HourPost your ongoing tales from your campaigns, and read those from others for inspiration. Lots of other RPG boards post "Story Hours", but this is where it started!
Originally posted by Old One I am a big proponent of making everything doable!
Doesn't help if the players don't care.
Plane Sailing, Lysander bashed that trog priest alone? Wow. Last few times a single party member over here attacked an enemy priest, they always got bashed. Hmm. Shouldn't attack a 12th level priest with a 6th level jack of all trades though...
Plane Sailing, Lysander bashed that trog priest alone? Wow. Last few times a single party member over here attacked an enemy priest, they always got bashed. Hmm. Shouldn't attack a 12th level priest with a 6th level jack of all trades though...
Well, Lysander is the highest level character in the group, a Jazumai6/Sorcerer1; very strong and getting two attacks per round with his scimitar against and elderly and decrepit old cleric 8 troglodyte. The trogs fear spells were useless against him and he has monstrously high fortitude and will saves. The trog had penalties to both his strength and dex... He hurt him with the inflict critical wounds, but apart from that...
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"It makes as much sense as having Batman kill his parents and then go on to fight mutants from another dimension." - Rykion
Well... without Divine Power or something similar, there's not much the cleric could do... Hold Person perhaps? But I agree, a full score fightertype uses to annihilate MUs at close range if those don't have several rounds to prepare.
Jazumai was something paladin like? Excuse me for asking, you mentioned it somewhere earlier...
Sure, the Jazumai are the paladin -type class in my campaign. They get most of the Paladin benefits, but with the following restrictions:
* No mount
* Only light armour
* Only proficient in scimitar, shortbow and unarmed (they get the monks unarmed damage progression as long as they are in light or no armour)
Their code is quite restrictive - as an example, they are obliged to defend the name of Asura, and this often means kill blasphemers. While in the Southlands they don't mind that there are many people who haven't "seen the light" and worship Asura, just so long as nobody shows disrespect to the name of their god. The LG Jazumai would typically strike to subdue with their unarmed proficiency, so that they can be taught the error of their ways; the LE Jazumai would typically cut down the infidels with some glee.
(there are no PHB standard paladins - the Jazumai are the only ones in my campaign)
Cheers
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"It makes as much sense as having Batman kill his parents and then go on to fight mutants from another dimension." - Rykion
Syl quickly clambers up the statue and examines the glowing eyes. Sapphires bigger than her hands. Excellent. She can also see into the giant copper bowl, and within the flickering flames she can tell that it is full of “stuff”.
“What kind of stuff?” the others call up.
“Dunno” says Syl. “Just stuff. I’m going to get one of these eyes out”.
At which point the rest of the party scatter to the various exits in the room and watch warily. Trajan says “I don’t think that is a particularly good idea…”
Syl presses on, and heaving away with her dagger manages to prize one of the gemstones free. “Got it!” she cries, holding it aloft for all to see.
Suddenly, with a grinding lurch, the huge stone dragon animates and steps away from the wall, shaking its neck. Syl manages to hold on and does a quick mental calculation – jump 25 ft to the floor or… She grabs hold of the other side of the dragons neck and stabs towards the other glowing sapphire eye, to attempt to free it from its socket…
__________________ Plane Sailing
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"It makes as much sense as having Batman kill his parents and then go on to fight mutants from another dimension." - Rykion
The sapphire starts to move, but then holds fast (missed her STR check by 1!). The stone dragon clubs her with one of its enormous forepaws, sending her spinning to the ground, badly wounded.
The other party members jump into action. Darra throws his hands out towards the dragon and shouts an incantation, and a bolt of electricity scars its stone head. Azrin calls upon Asura to stun the creature and a blast of sound knocks a couple of extra chips off. M’ir runs towards the fallen Syl, in case she needs to be carried away from the stone dragon whose head turns once again towards here. Syl, although barely conscious has no desire to hang around and jumps up, hobbling towards the nearest mining tunnel exit.
K’tan and Lysander who are within that exist quickly back further down the tunnel as the huge stone dragon stomps towards them, crouches down, folds its stone wings and forces its way into the passage. All three of them run for their lives, surrounded by the whanging sound of pit props being smashed away from the walls as the stone colossus chases after them.
Azrin notes the damage that the dragon is doing to the tunnels which it only just fits in, and while K’tan, Lysander and Darra run left at a vital junction, Azrin calls Syl to the right, leading her back into the main chamber. Hobbling along, just staying in front of the stone construct Syl follows directions, and the stone dragon follows her. Lysander makes a foray to strike at the statues back, but to no avail, nor do any of Trajan’s arrows harm it in the least.
Syl ducks into the ruined tunnel, hears the dragon smash its way in after her once more and she throws herself forward as she hears the tunnel start to collapse around her…
The company can see the tail of the buried stone dragon, but nothing else as the sound of the cave-in peters away. Tracing their way through the mine tunnels, they work their way round to the other side of the cave in – to find no smiling young rogue, nothing except rubble and a female hand, outstretched from it. Syl didn’t make it.
__________________ Plane Sailing
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"It makes as much sense as having Batman kill his parents and then go on to fight mutants from another dimension." - Rykion
Originally posted by Plane Sailing Darklone and Old One both score a prize for predicting one of the deaths - poor Syl
How did you guys know? Was it a rogue thing?
*high5 towards Old One*
How did I know? Read it in my coffee when I started to work that morning... After some unintelligible curses the milk and the coffee tried to dissolve the mountain of sugar and formed the word ... S Y L...
Honest: It's always the rogue who goes first.
- Who's got his fingers where they don't belong, be it traps or pouches? The rogue.
- Who's in front of the frontline fighters trying to stick his dagger somewhere? The rogue.
- Who's relying on his evasion that does not kick in when she/he needs it? The rogue.
- Who's the guy who hates poison and charms since he lacks will and fortitude? The rogue.
Personally, I never understood why a rogue should take Improved Initiative. Only makes him standing alone between all those enemies
Damn! I'm weeping for her. But it was a good way for a rogue to go! How many people get to say "my PC pulled huge gems from the eyes of a stone statue, got chased through narrow mine tunnels, and got caught in the cave-in?"
If she gets brought back, I hope they let her keep them.
You did a glorious job of painting the image; I could *see* the thing slamming through the narrow tunnels, in a fantasy cross between the T-Rex chase from Jurassic Park, and the giant stone ball scene from raisers of the Lost Arc.
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I agree, its a classic for a rogue death. Easily beats "oh, I was stabbed by Orcs". I was surprised when her first impulse when it came alive wasn't to run but to try to get the other eye out - and she darn near succeeded!
The chase through the mine tunnels was really exciting for us on the night - everyone got caught up in the atmosphere, some people just legged it and Azrin came up with the excellent idea (normally Azrin comes up with ideas that are so out in left field that he nearly circumnavigates the earth and comes back in to right field - but he was a real winner in this adventure )
I remember you saying somewhere, PC, that when creating an adventure you try to think of a really cool scene, and then work that into the adventure (like the torture gallery in the trillith demiplane). I think this comes over very well in OSM, and there are several portions which are particularly "cinematic" - this was one of them.
It's a technique I'm going to try putting into practice more myself too
__________________ Plane Sailing
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"It makes as much sense as having Batman kill his parents and then go on to fight mutants from another dimension." - Rykion
The company spend three hours resting and recuperating. M’ir hauls himself up onto the edge of the copper bowl once experimentation proves the flames to be heatless, and with some help from Azrin they sort their way through the litter of assorted rubbish and offerings obviously made by the troglodytes over the decades. A few good things are found - four recently made healing potions, a masterwork shortsword and buckler, a copper statue of a dragon and some assorted silver Marks.
Of much more interest is the opening in the wall revealed by the dragon statue moving away. It is a large opening into a chamber floored with copper plates and with a huge copper bath on one side. Looking around at the evidence here, it seems as if Copperdeath was at least 30 foot long. Unlike the mine workings this room wasn’t carved by tools of men, but by claws and magic. A circular tunnel leads out the other end.
Rested and with the fighters amongst them mostly recovered (but a lot shorter on magic power) the party start off along the huge circular tunnel. After walking for about fifteen minutes they become aware of a subtle trembling in the ground and a far-off sound of rumbling amidst the white noise of fast moving water. A vertical shaft is passed with the aid of a knotted rope - which must have been left by surviving heroes of the bell.
Eventually they reach a chamber - more like a shaft, rising up further than the eye can see into the upper reaches of the mountain. What first draws their attention is the incredible waterfall cascading down from the heights - the water glowing all manner of shifting colours as it falls thundering into a lake held back behind a retaining wall.
Through the rising mist off the water they can make out a beautiful woman, apparently enjoying the shower of water at the edge of the waterfall. She seems to be singing, and straining their ears to hear it they realise that the song is one of surpassing beauty and strange yearning…
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"It makes as much sense as having Batman kill his parents and then go on to fight mutants from another dimension." - Rykion
Mmmmm. She sounds like someone you'd want to stay with for a really long time.....
What did Syl's player do? Watch, play a NPC, or something else?
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Syl's player watched, made assorted groaning sounds and (when faced with a riddle) made astounding faces because he got it instantly, and nobody else did.
There have been a few occasions where I've let the player of a dead PC take on the running of an NPC, but that wasn't too practical on that evening.
Hopefully I'll get to the conclusion of writing that nights adventure in the next couple of days - especially since we are heading for the grand finale next Sunday. Yay!
(and for the onlookers, who do you think the other death is going to be? Coming to your screen soon... Mwahahahaha!
__________________ Plane Sailing
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"It makes as much sense as having Batman kill his parents and then go on to fight mutants from another dimension." - Rykion
However, the party consisting at this point of Jazumai, mages and a priest, have Will saves out the wazoo, and they all shake off the effects of her song without much problem. She moves closer to the edge of the mist and spray, and they can't help noticing that it is only her long flowing hair covers her… charms.
Lysander looks across to Azrin and raises his eyebrows. "Do you want to make love to this one too?" he asks with more than a hint of sarcasm.
Ignoring the Jibe, Azrin leads off into conversation with this Fey creature - who is apparently trapped here, imprisoned by Copperdeath so long ago, and with nothing to comfort her other than her songs and her giant rat friends (The Company now notice a number of dire rats paddling around in the pool near her - dire rats with strangely domed craniums and a particularly intelligent glint in their eye.
Trajan, Lysander and the others decide that they don't want to get involved with a fracas here, and say that they will consider seeing how to free her. Lysander and Trajan both have the distinct sense of an evil presence in her vicinity, and although they can't pinpoint her it seems likely that she is the source. Still, if she has been trapped here for fifty years or more, why not just leave her here?
A spiral ramp leads up the huge rock chimney; it is slippery with slime and mist from the multicoloured waterfall so the company rope themselves together before making the trip. Up, up, up they climb, getting soaked to the skin. The wisdom of roping themselves together is revealed when twice clumsy old Azrin slips, but is held tightly by his neighbouring companions. At several places up the path they see sparkling wet webs stretched across the cave and through the edge of the waterfall. Many skeletons of small fish are present, strained out of the tumbling water which must arise from a spring higher and further back in the barrier range.
At last, they reach the top of the slippery ramp, and through an open square window they can see a dragon-sized chamber, with assorted things in it. Entering the chamber for a closer look they find their clothes magically dried. Amongst the paraphernalia there is a huge chessboard with copper pieces set in the middle of a game, a small dragons head with dusty cobwebs affixed to a wall, a large brass bell and a corridor sloping up and away, filled with damaged stone statues of warriors and craftsmen.
Azrin checks out the chess game while Trajan dusts off the plaque under the copper dragon head – and is astonished when it animates, looks around at the party and then tells them a riddle (which I’ll not include here). Trajan looks around at the others, keeping his mouth shut, and they wonder what to make of it – nobody can remember much.
Suddenly one of the copper chess pieces animates and hurtles across towards the brass bell. Reacting like lightning, Trajan quickdraws his scimitar and hurls it across the chamber at the copper automaton – he strikes it, but it spins around and hurls its damaged body into the bell.
A sonorous “CLANG” fills the air.
__________________ Plane Sailing
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"It makes as much sense as having Batman kill his parents and then go on to fight mutants from another dimension." - Rykion
They look around, worried. Weapons are loosened, spell components reached for – but nothing happens. They decide to try again, making an effort to each write down part of the riddle. Again the dragons head is polished, again the riddle produced – and inspiration hits Azrin who cries out the answer.
They hear a grinding noise from the far wall, as a wide section slowly raises up into the ceiling. Beyond it their lantern light reveals mounds of sparkling copper. There must be thousands and thousands and thousands of copper pieces, piled around the room. A closer look reveals some larger than life sized copper statues and several chests. Darra casts detect magic and points out one of the chests as being particularly magical.
M’ir brings that chest out into the main chamber, and it is carefully opened. Inside wrapped amongst silks are a shiny copper longsword with hexagonal designs carved along its blade and with quillions decorated with hexagons. Azrin’s book-learnin’ recognises those symbols as being common amongst the Harthar wizards work from several thousand years ago… a group known for their dedication to the principles of law and strongly opposed to chaos.
Darra shies away from the sword (which is claimed by Trajan for the time being) and picks up a small gold ring with a couple of rubies on it. Wearing it he tries putting his hand into a flame (Ow!), asks Trajan to catch him if he jumps into his arms (Trajan agrees but moves his arms away at the last moment. Ow!) and tries a few other things in the hope of revealing the magical nature of the ring. He gives up in the face of the increasing laughter of his colleagues.
There is a thin crystal wand which M’ir and K’tan quickly identify as a Dorje – a mage device. M’ir exerts his power to look into the Dorje’s past, and he can see ghostlike images of strange creatures being constructed out of astral matter… They know what the wand can do, but neither of them can work out the command thought to work it. M’ir stores it away.
Azrin is particularly interested in some scrolls which are in the chest – one arcane scroll of Fireball is passed to Darra, but there is a divine scroll as well… of raising the dead. As one, the party turn to look at the slippery slope back down to where Syl’s body lays...
__________________ Plane Sailing
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"It makes as much sense as having Batman kill his parents and then go on to fight mutants from another dimension." - Rykion
BTW, As well as scaling the encounters up for my party, I've also scaled the treasure up too (ain't I nice?). Piratecat doesn't leave resurrection scrolls laying around in hidden dragon treasure hordes, but hey - I felt it was appropriate in these circumstances.
Besides, Azrin isn't high enough level to cast Raise Dead yet, so there is possibility for extra fun...
Cheers
__________________ Plane Sailing
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"It makes as much sense as having Batman kill his parents and then go on to fight mutants from another dimension." - Rykion
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